THE PROBLEM WITH LABELS

"The counselee is not the problem, the problem is" (Charles Kollar). Labels are useful as descriptions of symptomology, but labels can also inhibit, if not prohibit, real therapy by making a client resistant to therapy. People often describe themselves by their label: alcoholic; codependent, obsessive compulsive, etc. They live consistently with their labels because their label is their identity.

We tend to look for evidence that confirms the label, and we always find what we are looking for. In grad school* I read of an experiment by a professor of psychology and law at Stanford University. He had eight emotionally healthy people admitted to different psychiatric hospitals. The psychiatrists who were assigned to these "patients" were simply told that they were "hearing voices." Each was diagnosed as schizophrenic. One was also diagnosed as bipolar.

It is important to know that each "patient" acted normally. Yet once they were viewed as mentally ill, their normal behavior was viewed as a pretense--masking abnormality. The patients were hospitalized from 7 to 52 days and administered 2100 pills--none of them the gospill. The professor eventually informed the hospitals of the deception, but said he would do it again. Though he never did repeat it, the professor checked with the hospitals. Of the next 193 admissions they found 41 impostors.

Labels and blaming keep a person focused on the problem rather than the solution. Though labels do serve a useful function, they can also do real harm. Do not use them any more than is necessary and do not accept a label at face value. Our job as pastors is to help each person enter into becoming that "new creation" (II Corinthians 5:17) that God intends rather than being identified by the old one.

Grace & Peace;
Tom

*Charles Kollar writes of this experiment in "Solution Focused Pastoral Counseling," but I read of it in another source as required reading for Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment.